|
There are conventional laptops, laptops with 360 degree hinges, and 2-in-1 models where the keyboard separates from the tablet portion. A few have digital pens; some are small while others are as big as 17". Lenovo's going after than uncommon intersection of very small 360 degree convertible with pen. The Lenovo Yoga 900S is the smaller, thinner and lighter version of the Yoga 900 (as if that thin and light 13.3" convertible was a hefty beast). The 2.2 lb. Yoga 900S has a 12.5" display and it's currently the thinnest convertible at 0.5" (the 0.41" HP Spectre is currently the thinnest laptop of any kind). While the Yoga 900 runs on Intel Core i5 and i7 processors, the smaller Yoga 900S uses the lower power Intel Core m5 and m7 CPUs for silent, fanless operation at the expense of some performance.
The Yoga 900S, like all convertibles that transition from laptop to tablet to tent mode, has a touch screen. It adds special sauce in the form of a Wacom AES digitizer (unfortunately the optional $40 ThinkPad Pen Pro isn't included in the box). That, along with the relatively light weight, makes it an ideal note taking companion and it's good for digital painting and drawing too. It's muscling in on the low end Core m3 Microsoft Surface Pro 4, the more expensive and bulky Toshiba Portege Z20t and the Dell XPS 12. It lacks the horsepower of the Intel Core i5 and i7 equipped Microsoft Surface Pro 4 and the Surface Book. For those hoping to use this for artwork with complex drawings that have many layers or with heavier programs like Corel Painter 2016, this is an important consideration. For casual sketching and artwork, the Yoga 900S is perfectly adequate in terms of horsepower.
The laptop has Broadcom dual band WiFi 802.11ac with Bluetooth, a backlit keyboard, stereo speakers that are decent for the size and a 720p webcam.
Design and Ergonomics
This is very much the smaller version of the Lenovo Yoga 900. It's available in champagne gold (our review unit), which is very blingy with gold to pink casing tones and a two-tone gold and silver watchband hinge. The silver model is a little more staid with a silver casing and black keyboard deck. If you thought the HP Spectre was out there, the gold Yoga 900s is positively excessive even if it lacks a gold bar at the back.
The casing is aluminum alloy and is fairly rigid--this doesn't feel like a delicate or vulnerable machine even if it's not as robust as a Lenovo ThinkPad. Lenovo's finishes on the Yoga series have a sprayed on look that lessens the quality look and feel, though it's still a nice looking machine. Microsoft Surface products and Apple's various MacBooks look much more expensive (and in some cases, they are). The bottom panel is affixed with Torx T5 screws, and once you remove them, access to internals for upgrades and repairs is easy (there are plastic clips, but none that are overly tenacious).
The keyboard deck is finished in black faux leather textured plastic, similar to other Yogas. It's grippy and soft, and suits us fine. Neither the outer casing nor the interior accumulate fingerprints, though the touchpad does. The watchband hinge may look delicate, but it's firm and has held up fine in Lenovo's previous products. It's certainly a visual standout.
The laptop has a generous collection of ports compared to the 12" MacBook, though they're skimpy by larger 13.3" laptop and convertible standards. The charging port doubles as a USB 2.0 port and there's a USB 3.0 port, a USB-C 3.1 Gen. 1 5 Gbps port that supports display out and charging, and a 3.5mm combo mic-headphone jack.
Keyboard and Trackpad
Thin laptops and convertibles often suffer short key travel. The Yoga 900S keyboard is a casualty of the thin design and key travel is extremely short. Don't expect ThinkPad levels of keyboard excellence here. In fact, after typing several thousand words with it, I didn't warm up to this keyboard because there's little tactile feel and travel is so short. The truncated right shift key that makes room for arrow keys is another annoyance, but on a positive note, the white backlight is even and the trackpad is decent.
Display
The Lenovo Yoga 900S is available with a full HD 1920 x 1080 or QHD 2560 x 1440 display. Both are IPS and support touch and pen. We have the 1080p display, and brightness is good at 287 nits and contrast is likewise good at 750:1 with a respectable black level of 0.38 at maximum brightness. Gamma is perfect at 2.2 as is the 6600K native color temperature. Color gamut isn't impressive for this price range at 69% of sRGB and 52% of Adobe RGB. We expect near 100% of sRGB and 75% of Adobe RGB for laptops and convertibles in the $1,000+ price range. For content creators who work with images and video professionally, the gamut falls short, but it's fine for pleasant photo and video viewing for those who are content consumers.
|
